For the second season in a row, the New York Knicks have set up a training camp competition to finalize the end of their roster. On Wednesday, Leon Rose's front office agreed to Exhibit 9 contracts with John Konchar, Drew Eubanks, Ochai Agbaji, Bruce Brown, and James Wiseman.
The five veterans have varying amounts of experience in the league, but are all ultimately in the same boat — on the fringes of the NBA and in positions where a spot on the reigning champions' roster could help them as much as they hope to help the Knicks.
New York is arguably in this position in the first place because of their organizational refusal to surpass the salary cap's second apron, something governor James Dolan made clear they wouldn't be having any part of just four days after the team ended its 53-year championship drought. The room — or lack of it — that the Knicks have underneath the second apron only allows them to keep just one of those five veterans, even though they technically have two open spots on their roster.
Knicks will need to deal someone if several roster hopefuls earn spots
As of right now, the Knicks can sign a player to a one-year deal for the veteran's minimum without crossing any costly lines. Given the team's lack of options behind Karl-Anthony Towns and Andre Drummond, a free agent center addition stands out as the most important next step on paper.
Wings like Konchar and Agbaji may not have the best chance to make this roster — unless, of course, Rose is willing to make room for a second one of the five Exhibit 9 players to make the final cut. He could do that by leveraging some of the team's second-round draft capital to salary dump a young player, like Pacôme Dadiet, onto the roster of a team in a more developmental phase.
Until these veterans actually get out on the court in training camp, though, it behooves the Knicks to stand pat. There's still a chance that the majority of these veterans will fail to impress — and that Dadiet stands out, for now, to Rose's front office as the best reasonable use of his own roster spot.
If they do end up needing to make room for, say, the duo of Konchar and Eubanks, it shouldn't be too hard to find a team willing to accept draft compensation in exchange for taking a flier on a lanky, 21-year-old wing with championship DNA. If Rose can't strike a deal that makes sense, though, he may just have to roll with the best center into the 2026-27 regular season — and let the rest of his roster-spot competitors go.
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